Sesame Street's New Character Julia

Happy holidays to all!

At this time of year, it can be hard to focus on anything other than wrapping things up or moving things along. Fortunately, I was able to attend a professional development course today, which always forces me to slow down and really concentrate on one aspect of practice.

The course was on developing and deepening learning opportunities for preschool children on the Autism spectrum, and (most helpfully for me) included lots of visual and tactile ways to integrate curricula for students who may not respond as readily to the spoken word. There were tons of excellent resources offered to me during this session, which I will dig into a little deeper in a week or two. First though, something else that is exciting!

During the presentation I was reminded of a wonderful new addition to Sesame Street as of late. Her name is Julia, and she is the show's first autistic muppet. She is lovely, and her struggles are very reminiscent of many of my students. Julia has difficulty making eye contact, responding to questions and sometimes talks a little too loudly. She is funny and she likes to play with Elmo and Abby. Most of all, she is a normal and special kid.

Not only did Sesame Street introduce this new character, but they have also developed excellent resources for parents and siblings of children with Autism. There are also videos that can also be used for basic social narratives of daily routines with the youngest students.

May the warmth of this character bring a little joy into your holiday season!

-Ms. OJ

RtI vs. MTSS: Education alphabet soup!

Something new is going on at Giles this year that is being echoed in schools around the country.

RtI, or Response to Intervention, has now become (or really, evolved into) MTSS or Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.

I realized I didn't fully understand what this transition meant, so I decided to do a little digging after receiving a very helpful introductory staff newsletter in my inbox last week. Here is a little clarity for those who may be confused as I was.

RtI was, by name, a response to something that was already actively occurring. We wait until a student needs support and then we offer it to then, once they have "proven" their need (via various forms of testing). MTSS, conversely, is a support system, meaning it is pro-active and not just reactive. Wouldn't it be great if we could get students engaged in school supports before they are falling through the cracks? Well that's just what MTSS aims to do!

By seeing support staff as a part of the broader school context (and not just for "those" kids), MTSS provides every student with the opportunity to get a little extra boost. Thus MTSS is far more extensive and inclusive than RtI. It includes positive behavior intervention systems, overall curriculum design and more. It's like the difference between a major city's office of transportation and their public rail service (eg. the CTA in Chicago versus the Department of Transportation). While the CTA is a crucial part of Chicago transit, we can all agree that it's not the only component one considers when needing to get around the city. Similarly, RtI is just one aspect of a broader MTSS program.

Here is an excellent blog post about this and below is a handy graphic from that post to help explain more thoroughly the shift in thinking.

Hope this helps!

-Ms. OJ